Carlyle Group buys part of Home Depo

[donsu]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/26/AR2007082601039.html?hpid=moreheadlines


Home Depot Agrees to Lower Price for Supply Arm


Home Depot has reached a deal with a consortium of private-equity firms headed by Carlyle Group to sell its supply arm, HD Supply, for $8.5 billion, down from its original price of $10.3 billion, according to sources close to the negotiations.

The deal was reached Sunday after weekend-long negotiations between District-based Carlyle Group, Home Depot and several banks, according to sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.

Home Depot, the world's largest home-improvement store chain, had said last week that it was talking with the buyers about restructuring the agreement, which was expected to result in a lower price because of recent turmoil that has gripped the credit markets since the deal's announcement in June.
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what don't they (poppy) own.

poppy will ruin us yet. he can't let himself die until the deed is finished.


(sorry for the WalMart error, don't know where my brain went to)

[Kagemusha]

1. What do you mean, of Wal-Mart?

This just a typo? Which is okay, if that's what it is.

[AlCzervik]

2. did i miss the Wal-mart part of the article?

[UTUSN]

3. I remind in all Carlyle threads, co-founder was a Jimmy CARTER staffer

There was a veritable nest of vipers at CARTER's breast: Tweety, Pat CADDELL, and this guy, who, however, doesn't come off so bad here when he fired Shrub::

*******QUOTE*******

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3994.htm

.... In a column posted yesterday on Salon.com, Joe Conason writes: "Preferring to avoid public scrutiny for obvious reasons, executives at the Carlyle Group usually say nothing about their firm's connections with the Bush dynasty. But last April 23, Carlyle managing director David Rubenstein spoke quite frankly about the comfy sinecure he provided to George W. Bush more than a decade ago -- and how useless Bush turned out to be. Whether he knew it or not, Rubenstein's remarks to the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association were recorded."

Rubenstein said, "We put (Bush) on the board and (he) spent three years. Came to all the meetings. Told a lot of jokes. Not that many clean ones. And after a while I kind of said to him, after about three years - you know, I'm not sure this is really for you. Maybe you should do something else. Because I don't think you're adding that much value to the board. You don't know that much about the company.

Rubenstein continued: "He said, 'Well, I think I'm getting out of this business anyway. And I don't really like it that much. So I'm probably going to resign from the board.' And I said, thanks - didn't think I'd ever see him again. His name is George W. Bush. He became President of the United States. So you know if you said to me, name 25 million people who would maybe be President of the United States, he wouldn't have been in that category. So you never know. Anyway, I haven't been invited to the White House for any things." ....

********UNQUOTE*******

[pepperbear]

4. hey man, what's with the disinformation? n/t

[lonestarnot]

5. Did you fuse your red stores?

[Lone_Star_Dem]

6. Easy enough to do

One big box republican backing store is so like the other.

[donsu]

7. something got fushed for sure

nt

[benld74]

8. Never did like Home Depot, now I never will

[emilyg]

9. Same here. I go to Lowe's.

[coco77]

14. Lowes is better...

[AlCzervik]

10. i worked for hd for 7 years and i never buy anything there. Bob Nardelli ruined it.

[jmowreader]

12. It's getting better, though

They've made Bernie and Arthur some kind of special consultants to the company, and they're planning to use the HD Supply money to upgrade our computer equipment.

Whether it means they're going to put a graphical interface on our 1979-vintage mainframe database I don't know.

[jmowreader]

11. Let me explain this as it's complex

HD Supply was a Bob Nardelli brainchild we're trying to get away from.

The Home Depot was founded to sell building supplies to end users--do-it-yourselfers and contractors. We expanded by building stores.

They brought Bob Nardelli in, and Bob expanded by purchasing other companies.

Bob noticed Grainger and Fastenal sitting there and decided he wanted a piece of their action. He went out and bought a bunch of small industrial supply houses, then merged them all under this "HD Supply" banner. He also bought weird shit--a hospitality supply company, a bolt manufacturer, that kind of thing.

So check this shit out: Grainger was a supplier of electric motors that became a general industrial supply. They're the 800-pound gorilla of the industry. Fastenal started as a custom packaging company: if you make metal sheds that are delivered with a laundry list of fasteners, Fastenal will sell you all those fasteners sealed into one bag cheaper than you can make up the bags yourself. They've also become a huge company. What's Nardelli do? Buys ALL THE COMPANIES that were getting their asses kicked by Grainger and Fastenal, integrates them into one company, pastes "HD" on the door and watches the new company get ITS ass kicked by Grainger and Fastenal.

The Crown Bolt acquisition was the only one I really liked. Crown Bolt sold fasteners mainly to Home Depot. There are a few thousand Home Depots in the world and they all carry Crown Bolt products. Our production cost isn't all that high because a third of those bolts are Taiwanese, a third are Korean and a third Chinese. There's big markup on fasteners, but not a hell of a lot of revenue because fasteners are inexpensive. (It takes a while to make a million dollars in the four-cent washer business.)

And now that they've figured out competing against vertical retailers who know what they're doing is hard work and we're rid of the moran who did it to us, they're getting out of it.

[soothsayer]

13. home despot is red, lowes is blue (and better!)

carlyle is going to get hit with some subprime mortgage losses, so watch for a bailout.